The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that a sufficient number of H2B filings has been received for the second half of Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. As long-time MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers may recall from articles including, Overview: H2B Temporary Workers (Sep 14,...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) published a public notice in the Federal Register on December 19, 2008, announcing changes in the completion of the J-1 Visa Waiver Recommendation Application Form (DS-3035). Beginning February 1, 2009, all applicants will be required to complete and submit...
MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers recently were advised of an emerging problem involving international medical graduates (IMGs) with Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degrees. In short, the USCIS, through the Texas Service Center (TSC) is, in some cases, not considering the MBBS to...
The United States Department of Defense (DOD) issued a press release to announce a new plan designed to address the chronic shortage of doctors, nurses, and linguists in the United States Armed Forces. Under a trial program, the Military Accession Vital to National Interest Recruitment...
Many law firms representing physicians in the immigration process have begun noticing a disturbing new trend in the treatment of I-140 employer petitions filed in the employment-based, second preference (EB2) category on behalf of international medical graduates (IMGs). While it long has been a given...
The USCIS has just released a memo dated December 5, 2006, that makes significant positive changes to the counting of time for H1Bs, H-4s, L-1s, and L-2s. This Memo addresses three separate issues. It decouples time spent in H-4 or L-2 status from the time...
As anticipated, the President signed a temporary extension of the Conrad State Waiver program on October 8, 2008. The Conrad program is important for many International Medical Graduates (IMGs) who obtain training in the U.S. in J-1 status. The Conrad Waiver program provides an option...
The USCIS has announced an increase in the allowable period of admission for foreign nationals using the Trade-NAFTA (TN) status. This status is available only to Canadian and Mexican citizens. The TN status was previously issued in one-year increments, with no limit on the number...
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Service Center Operations / ISD Committee (SCOPS) recently released answers to questions posed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) service centers. These questions were from a meeting on August 20, 2008. Some of the questions addressed the "sunset"...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has announced that it will accept 2010 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery applications from 12:00 noon Eastern Daylight Time on October 2, 2008 to 12:00 noon Eastern Standard Time on December 1, 2008. The only way to apply is through...
